Universal Health Plan in America: The good, the Bad, your Opinions (premium, insurance)
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OMG, the sky is falling!!! Heck, Chrysler just forced me to drive across town to get my Jeep worked on by closing dealerships! I have to go to another dealer to get the RV worked on. Dillards quit carrying my favorite brand of shoes, and now I have to go across the street to Macy's. Come to think of it, I have to drive all the way to Albuquerque for a decent mall. I asked for a Frosty at McDonalds and they told me I had to go to Wendy's! The nerve of these private businesses dictating what they sell and where!!!
These companies decided this all on their own - lets nationalize everything so a few pathetic, whiny liberals don't have to get off their lazy behinds for their free healtchare. Pathetic!!!
Inappropriate analogy. Health care is not the same as buying a car, or a Frosty.
That is because once you reach 65, your primary insurance is Medicare, not these sleazy for profit insurance policies. No insurance company will sell you a primary policy if you qualify for medicare. The private companies don't even address age after 65. You can bet if they did, they'd use some type of formula.
Quit fear-mongering about the disabled. Someone with Down's would probably be in a higher category to receive the flu vaccine b/c of other health conditions.
True, but it's a little hard to afford hospitalization for your pre-existing condition w/o insurance.
Since Obama has taken so much from the Medicare budget for next year would it not seem reasonable that those over 65 will no longer be on Medicare since all will be equal and Medicare will no longer be there. I am looking forward to the day when my age determines whether I get care and when. My 6 bypass surgery that was performed in 2005 was done three days after my heart attack and nobody questioned how old I was. They just lined me up for the surgery and did it. I hardly think 3 days would do it for me under Obamacare. No, all 65 year olds would come before me. 72 puts me with one foot in the grave but I am looking forward to over 85 because my life was saved back then. BTW, I had three arteries with about 95% plugged and the other three were 85%. I don't think I could have survived too much longer. In fact, the EMT on the ambulance said she was sure that I was gone for a fraction of time from the blood pressure. Yep, I am still here without Obamacare and don't think I would be if he had been in office with this Congress four years ago.
Once again the magician has you looking at cost alone and not the rationing of treatment. In Great Britain, the formula for treatment is based on cost and the number of years you are expected to live. Email your two state senators and ask them this one question:
What is the Federal Government formula that will be used to determine treatment in the healthcare bill that's in the Senate right now?
I don't know this answer so I will do the same but before everyone just throws up their hands and hopes it will just go away because you don't know what to believe about cost, don't you think you should know the answer to the rationing question?
I think they should know the answer. After all, they love their federal government insurance policy (The kind many of them don't want you to have).
Heh. I particularly liked this part of the first linked article. . .
Quote:
On Wednesday, a bipartisan panel led by four former Senate majority leaders — Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell — will release a solid proposal for health care reform. Among other things, it would call on the federal government to do more research on which treatments actually work. An “independent health care council” would also be established, charged with helping the government avoid unnecessary health costs. The Obama administration supports a similar approach.
And connecting the dots is easy enough. Armed with better information, Medicare could pay more for effective treatments — and no longer pay quite so much for health care that doesn’t make people healthier.
Mr. Baker, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Dole and Mr. Mitchell: I accuse you of rationing.
The only thing I would have changed, is that I think that last sentence deserves an feigned-outraged exclamation point at the end.
Wanna know what our current healthcare did to me because of "rationing"? I've had 3 years of intermittent treatment for a rotator cuff and neck injury I sustained when I fell off my bike. It's been intermittent because United Healthcare through my husband's employer, rations my physical therapy to 45 visits per year. If I have to go 3 times a week, I use that up in 15 weeks, which leaves me with 37 weeks of the year that I cannot receive treatment.
The result? I now have severe osteoarthritis in my cervical spine.
Severe.
A degenerative disease brought about because an injury was not properly treated until it was healed, but was treated until big insurance decided it was no longer profitable to treat me.
Now I'll have to endure a lifetime of treatment and a lifetime of pain and possible disfigurement.
So much for your argument about public healthcare rationing being the boogeyman in this equation.
"An entire team of doctors at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center decided that the CyberKnife offered the only treatment that could save Vinci's life.
"Without it," said UCSF radiation oncologist Kim Huang, "it's impossible to have a cure in her case."
But then Kinder and Vinci got letters from their health insurance company—Blue Shield—denying payment for the procedure."
Blue Shield Denies New Cancer Treatment Claim - cbs5.com (http://cbs5.com/investigates/CyberKnife.blue.shield.2.716740.html - broken link)
According to Mercy Medical Center's billing department, Coventry Healthcare originally approved the procedure, but then denied coverage after receiving the bill. Coventry calls Cyberknife experimental.
Health Insurance Company Denies Family's Claim - WHO (http://www.whotv.com/who-healthinsurancecompanydeni-6560901may23,0,7137849.story - broken link)
In May, 2008, Robin Beaton, a retired registered nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, went to her dermatologist to be treated for acne. He mistakenly wrote down something on her chart that made it appear that she might have a pre-cancerous skin condition.
Not a big deal, right? It shouldn't have been, except that soon after that, she was diagnosed with something far more serious -- invasive and agressive breast cancer. Three days before she was scheduled for a double mastectomy, her insurance company, Blue Cross, called her and told her they were launching an investigation into the last five years of her health records. It turned out that dermatologist's note had been a red flag, and the company was looking for a way to cancel her policy on the grounds that she had been hiding a serious medical condition.
As more Georgians are forced to seek health insurance on their own, many are learning painful lessons about the difference between the familiar employer-provided group coverage and the individual policies that sometimes replace them.
Policies are suddenly canceled. Monthly premiums rival the size of mortgage payments. Huge bills go unpaid because of surprising gaps in coverage.
These lessons and more are embedded in hundreds of complaints filed with the Georgia Insurance Commissioner’s office over the past five years. The complaints contain tales of misery experienced by holders of individual policies, a small but increasingly important segment of Georgia’s health insurance market.
Atlanta Metro News*| ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/06/21/insure06211.html - broken link)
The state has helped Floridians recover more than $11.5 million in the first six months of this year in claim payments and premium refunds, including one case that resulted in a $1.2 million payment on a consumer's unpaid hospital claims.
What is the Federal Government formula that will be used to determine treatment in the healthcare bill that's in the Senate right now?
I don't know this answer so I will do the same but before everyone just throws up their hands and hopes it will just go away because you don't know what to believe about cost, don't you think you should know the answer to the rationing question?
You're a federal retiree - what's the formula used for your health insurance benefits now, and during your working career? I'm a federal retiree as well, and I don't have a clue how my health insurance (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) makes this determination.
There are deductibles, and co-pays, and preferred providers, and every year the stuff changes (i.e., gets more expensive). But as far as the determination that, for example, I have up to 75 visits a year for outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy, and that each visit will cost me a $20 co-pay ... well, I don't have a clue how that determination was made. Do you?
Once again the magician has you looking at cost alone and not the rationing of treatment. In Great Britain, the formula for treatment is based on cost and the number of years you are expected to live. Email your two state senators and ask them this one question:
What is the Federal Government formula that will be used to determine treatment in the healthcare bill that's in the Senate right now?
I don't know this answer so I will do the same but before everyone just throws up their hands and hopes it will just go away because you don't know what to believe about cost, don't you think you should know the answer to the rationing question?
The problem people are not understanding is that this type of system (single-payer) is exactly what we're going to get with UHC but worse because they're going to control costs (and therefore care) even more. They have to....there's only two ways to lower the cost of UHC...either pay providers even less than Medicare pays now or control treatment.....that's managed care. In a PPO even if your doctor is not in the network (which is very rare), the plans still pay benefits on an out-of network basis.
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Do (did actually) you have any experience with PacifiCare, AKA by some health professionals as "Pathetic Care"? We had a PC PPO, and it was horrible. Their customer service absoltely sucked! Thank G**, they were bought by United, which we haven't had any problems with, thus far.
I think they should know the answer. After all, they love their federal government insurance policy (The kind many of them don't want you to have).
Does rationing happen today? No?
Are you kidding? Go read your policy! It's not rationing by age, but the ins. companies make many decisions on what they will and won't cover. It's not all "between dr. and patient".
Are you kidding? Go read your policy! It's not rationing by age, but the ins. companies make many decisions on what they will and won't cover. It's not all "between dr. and patient".
That was my point (and a question along the lines). Apparently, quite a few don't mind being taken for a ride and abused, as long as things are kept out of sight and out of basic comprehension. It is that Ostrich Syndrome at work for these folks.
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